Pentagon Spent Over $500 Million Making Fake Al-Qaeda Videos

It has already been well-documented that the Pentagon spent a substantial amount of money on propaganda during the occupation of Iraq, running pro-occupation commercials and also covertly getting pro-occupation news stories into the media around the region. It turns out that was just the tip of the iceberg.

Then, during the many US military raids going on during the occupation, a few of the fake propaganda CDs were scattered around here or there in the wreckage of smashed-up houses and compounds. Officially, the goal was for al-Qaeda sympathizers to get ahold of them.

Which is why RealMedia format was used, as the player for the proprietary format would automatically connect to the Internet. The video was linked to a Google Analytics account, through which the Pentagon could get the IP address of every computer that watched the fake propaganda.

It’s unclear what this ultimately amounted to, but those involved in the project praised the effort as collecting a substantial list of IP addresses, including some that ended up in other countries like Iran, Syria, and even the United States.

Unspoken within the reports as they’ve emerged so far, having “al-Qaeda propaganda” laying around in the wreckage of US raid targets was likely also an end unto itself, as anyone who came to investigate after the fact would see them and assume the raid was on an actual al-Qaeda target, never suspecting the US troops were planting the discs.

Think back over the last 15 years. You’ve seen awful videos that reinforce the point of why we fight the terrorists. Now, how many of those were made by the Pentagon? How many by any other of the alphabet soup of agencies? In a modern world, these things get around. How much of what you think about terrorists was actually made by the Pentagon?

And, the worst part is, they outsourced the work overseas so this waste of American tax dollars didn’t even create any jobs in America.

I’ve always wondered about the veracity of the bin Laden videos. In at least one of them, he kept gesturing with his left hand while talking with a group. I’ve always been led to believe that gesturing with the left hand is considered incredibly rude in Saudi culture.

If I’m not mistaken and memory serves correctly, that exact reference to the left hand gestures was made here on Antiwar.com at the time that video was running through the media – and the veracity of the video was questioned then also.

MvGuy,
Yes, particularly the video in which a fat Bin Laden “brags” on pulling off 9-11. That was the video that showed up in an abandoned cave in Afghanistan. That was a low budget effort that obviously went out for bid on a fixed-firm price basis. Corners were cut.

Thanks Richard…for the tip.. I didn’t know that videos’ provonance. It’s intresting to note its the SAME “left behind” M.O. as the subject videos.. I have always contended that the reason that usagov keeps people it knows are totally innocent in notorious custody is to character cast their fable with the faces of “usual suspects”.. So as to populate their computer-techno auto terror with Muslim looking human faces….
Not sure how it was accomplished. Totally sure not as advertised… Always check who gains what..

A US company based in NYC and run by a retired Army Colonel that was originally hired (for $40 million) to ‘find good news in Iraqi media’, then to write good news to be found in Iraqi media ($300 million) was later hired to expand its ‘scanning capabilities to include Iraqi and regional telecommunications. That worked so well they eventually migrated to Colorado and settled in to monitor the internet traffic of most of the world ($ billions) , except America. That’s done by the five eyes nations who are exempt from US personal freedom legislation.

The real question is not about the Pentagon’s official reason for making and formatting these videos, but rather concerns determing whether any of the staged footage was promoted in Western media markets as truth.

I know many people have a great deal of difficulty comprehending just how many wars are started for no other purpose than to force private central banks onto nations, so let me share a few examples, so that you understand why the US Government is mired in so many wars against so many foreign nations. There is ample precedent for this.

This is the Prologue to the new documentary from The Corbett Report, Al Qaeda Doesn’t Exist. This documentary interrogates the notion that Osama Bin Laden single-handedly runs the pervasive Al Qaeda terrorist network by examining its inception, its links to Western intelligence, the double agents and fictitious characters that populate its ranks, and the fraudulent ways the Al Qaeda myth is propagated in the controlled corporate media.

Mayor Giuliani oversaw the illegal destruction of the 9/11 crime scene and is criminally liable for the deaths of hundreds of emergency workers for not passing on prior warnings about the collapses of the Twin Towers.